Lahore (Agents’) Development Authority

LAHORE: Corruption has been plaguing the Lahore Development Authority as its officials have been involved in illegal adjustments of plots from acquired land for various schemes against underhand deals with the former owners.An official of the authority, on condition of anonymity, said that these officials often remove important documents from files to exploit applicants on the name of missing files. As a result, thousands of cases are pending with different sections of the LDA because of ‘objection trick’ and officials are receiving hefty amounts for forwarding files only of selected clients. “Some high-ups of the authority also patronising these ‘dedicated officials’ for their vested interests, which causing huge loss to the national exchequer,” he added. Although, the LDA had established ‘One Window Operation’ for giving relief to the applicants, but to no avail, the official held. Further, the mafia also looting landowners on the pretext of allocation and adjustment of land despite the fact that they have legal right to be given land, the official further said. Another official told this scribe that action against officials over corruption and other charges was a routine matter. “Overhauling of LDA, need of the hour otherwise the practice of fleecing and deceiving citizens cannot be stopped even by any higher government authority,” he concluded.An applicant Abid Hussain complained that his case of allocation of land is pending with the LDA for 25 years and he is still getting round of the LDA offices for his due right. He said that officials of different section were demanding bribery for resolving his case and on refusal they raised dozens of objections on his file. However, when this scribe tried to contact LDA Director General Ahad Khan Cheema for his version, he was not available.–Staff Reporter

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 05-Feb-2014 here.